Special Sound: The Creation and Legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

by Louis Niebur

Special Sound traces the fascinating creation and legacy of the BBC's electronic music studio, the Radiophonic Workshop, in the context of other studios in Europe and America. The BBC built a studio to provide its own avant-garde dramatic productions with experimental sounds "neither music nor sound effect." Quickly, however, a popular kind of electronic music emerged in the form of quirky jingles, signature tunes such as Doctor Who, and incidental music for hundreds of programs. These influential sounds and styles, heard by millions of listeners over decades of operation on television and radio, have served as a primary inspiration for the use of electronic instruments in popular music.

Using in-depth research in the studio's archives and papers, this book tells the history of the many engineers, composers, directors, and producers behind the studio to trace the shifting perception towards electronic music in Britain. Combining historical discussion of the people and instruments in the workshop with analysis of specific works, Louis Niebur creates a new model for understanding how the Radiophonic Workshop fits into the larger history of electronic music.

Genres: Music, Doctor Who, History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2010

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a fan of the Radiophonic Workshop, I really enjoyed this book. As a history of the Workshop, it was excellent and its contextualization of Special Sound in relation to music and sound effects at the BBC was fascinating.

My only problem with this book is the author attempt to discuss the Special Sound in the context of European Modernism. The two movements under particular discussion are Musique concrète and Serialism and I get the impression that, although the author understands the practicalities of these schools, he has a slightly skewed idea of their philosophies. This leads to a couple of flawed observations.

[Marc Weidenbaum]

Academic overview of the great home to abstract electronic audio at the BBC, founded in 1958 and closed down in 1998 when the equipment that had been its edge was affordable to the everyday musician. What's great about the book is that in addition to musical analysis and media studies, there's a lot about how the Workshop functioned within the bureaucracy of the BBC.

[Rob Mollart-highfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard going at times, and not for the terminally unmusical, but an interesting survey of the work and characters of a pioneering studio right up until the democratisation of technology and changing tastes rendered it not pioneering any more.
Very good on the history, but light on details of the legacy - I'd have liked something on the artists that were influenced by the Workshop's 40-odd years.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Doctor Who information, while not thorough, puts it in good context with RWS. The political and technical positions taken about RWS and the changes in electronic music are a little tough to get through, but I enjoyed the passages about different employees of the RWS.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating detail and context of how this BBC department developed and pioneered techniques in often challenging circumstances.